Nintendo Switch sees 40 percent drop in performance when undocked

Nintendo Switch has been found to be around 40 percent less capable when undocked compared to what its GPU performance is in the docked state.

Nintendo Switch is perhaps best left in its dock if it is to perform to the optimum, claimed a Digital Foundry report on this. Sure that negates the mobility factor that the new console aims to promote though that comes at the cost of a sharp drop in its performance.

The drop in performance has been found to be to the tune of up to 40 percent than what the system is otherwise capable of when in a docked state. That said, the CPU and the memory controller have been found to be immune to the change in the console’s configuration. Instead, it is the GPU speed that has its speed varying widely in the two setting. That sure makes the console considerably slower than the Xbox One or the PS4.

As has been found, the Nintendo Switch is built around a version of the Tegra X1 chip which in its normal state is rated at speeds of 1 GHz. Unfortunately, the chip is capable of hitting only 768 MHz irrespective of the manner it is put to use. While that has been done to achieve thermal and battery life targets, what can’t be ignored is the around 40 percent decline in performance the console suffers from.

For those who feast on numbers, the Nintendo Switch CPU is rated at 1020 MHz, which remains the same regardless of it being attached to the dock or not. The memory controller, in turn, sees its speed drop to 1331 MHz when undocked compared to the 1600 MHz that it is capable of when in a docked state.

That said, developers can still choose to retain the entire memory bandwidth if they so desire in their titles. However, the console’s performance might be further tweaked by the developers if they wish to. This can particularly be the case since developers no doubt will like to see their games perform consistently so far as gameplay and graphics are concerned. All of this, in turn, might hamper the performance of the Nintendo Switch considerably.

In related news, Nintendo also stated it will be making available the NES Classic Edition in limited quantities in Best Buy stores across the US on Dec. 20. Nintendo also stressed the mini NES console will be available only in the physical stores and can’t be procured online.